Which to use
“hospice” is a noun and “hostile” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,385
- “hospice” frequency rank
- #6,365
- “hostile” frequency rank
- 23750
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hospice | hostile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A lodging for pilgrims or the destitute, normally provided by a monastic order. | Not friendly; appropriate to an enemy; showing the disposition of an enemy; showing ill will and malevolence or a desire to thwart and injure. |
Where the eye mixes hospice and hostile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. hospice and hostile follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses hospice with hostile
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hospice is /ˈhɑspɪs/ while hostile is /ˈhɒstaɪl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23750, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hospice is recorded at frequency rank #17,385, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɑspɪs/. hostile is at rank #6,365, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɒstaɪl/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 23750, this pair ranks #407,041 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hospice vs hostile
Shared letters: ehios. Private to "hospice": cp. Private to "hostile": lt.
"hospice" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "hostile" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hospice" for "hostile" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hospice" vs "hostile" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "hospice" and "hostile" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hospice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hostile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,041 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hospice" and "hostile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hostile vs hottie". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #407,041 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.